Great Article about Home Depot

[Laurie Brown]

It's not just home improvement stores, either. This corporate attitude of cutting staff, cutting knowledge, and putting the burden on the customer seems to be running rampant everywhere.

Just last week I was in Krogers (A grocery store chain for those who don't have them) doing my monthly grocery shopping. It was 9am on a Monday. I had over $100 worth of groceries in my cart, probably over 300 pounds worth of stuff, and I get to the checkouts to pay for my items. There is ONE register open, staffed with two people (a cashier and a bagger), and it's the '20 items or less' express lane. I stodd there and pointedly looked around to see if there were any other registers open, not wanting to plug up the express lane with my larger order, but there was no one.

So I wheel up to the express lane with my cart (at the time I was the only customer at the checkouts). The cashier says to me, "You can't come through this lane, you have to use the U-Scan." Excuse me? I'm supposed to do the cashier's job and scan and bag 300 pounds worth of groceries (for no pay of course) myself so that he can stand there and do nothing because he's running the express register?

I put my items on the register and said, "I will be happy to go to another register if someone is going to open one, but if not, you're it." In my view, it's easier for someone with a few items to use the U-Scan than someone with a whole cart load. If they were only going to have ONE friggin register open, why not make it a REGULAR one, so people with more than 20 items can get checked out?? ARGH, I hate Kroger!

[Don Bullock]

I fully agree with the article. Customer service has really taken a dive at Home Depot and Lowe's as well. I hate the "self-check out." Maybe I'm too ald fashioned (or perhaps just too old), but I like working with "real people." I find myself avoiding Home Depot and Lowes' in favor of a smaller chain we have called Do-It Center. Lately they have been getting a lot of my money.

[Karl Knoernschild]

Lowes just opened a store five minutes from here, and it's great. Their business hasn't really picked up yet, so the employees get REALLY bored. They practically chase me down the aisles trying to help. If you just roll your cart past the registers, there's two or three asking hopefully if you're ready to check out yet.

I have always preferred Lowes to HD since they started opening stores locally. I've had a couple of really bad experiences at Home Depot, so I avoid them whenever possible.

[Pete Brown]

I put my items on the register and said, "I will be happy to go to another register if someone is going to open one, but if not, you're it." In my view, it's easier for someone with a few items to use the U-Scan than someone with a whole cart load. If they were only going to have ONE friggin register open, why not make it a REGULAR one, so people with more than 20 items can get checked out?? ARGH, I hate Kroger!

I totally agree, Laurie

My first job was bagging groceries for $3.15 an hour. Somone else can bag mine now, and I'm definitely not ringing my own crap up.

The home depot near me has those stupid automated checkouts as well. Unfortunately, the weight scanner in that always seems to be wrong. The front desk person there was off chatting with someone in front of paint when it gave me a hard time (no other registers open). I finally had to yell "a little help please!" and they had the nerve to look at me as though I was a problem.

I rarely ask employees at HD and Lowes for anything. About the only time I ever need anything is in checkout. As far as tool selection, they both stink. I drive an hour up to Cayce (Rockler affiliate store) for any real tool purchases, or order online.

That all being said, I own a house, and I must visit these stores about once a week to get some odd thing

Pete

[Tim Wagner]

staffing issues is all about maximizing profits soly for big corprate CEO's and it's share holders. nothing else, never gonna change.

CEO says- my stock that i get at set price isn't enough for me. go out and sell High profit items. If you can't consistantly upsell each ticket by more than 20% you WIll be replaced.

Edit: I should add that I wasn't exactly refferring Too HD or Lowes, but the general practice is the same with all big Corparates.

[Rob Will]

I'm a regular Lowe's customer but have recently been buying hardware items at an old established Ace Hardware store. I think they are enjoying kicking the new Borg's butt.

I was looking for 1/4' x 1" countersunk machine screws. Our Lowes sells them only in individual plastic packages. Believe it or not, Lowes gets 90 cents each ........our local Ace Hardware has a whole bin-full of the little critters for 12 cents apiece.

Rob

[Dan Owen]

Costco is just as bad. I refuse to pay a store $50 just to walk through their doors and even worse, I refuse to be treated like shoplifter when leaving. ( They ask for your receipt and inventory your cart)

[Randy Acton]

I have been to every Lowes and Home Depot within a 50 mile radius of my home. Over the past few years things have changed between the 2 of them.

Initially home depot had the best customer service but that has changed. I used to be able to walk into home depot and was annoyed at how many employees asked if they could help. Now it is hard to find anyone. Lowe's on the other hand always seems to have someone ther when I need them.

That being said, the biggest difference I see between them is that HD seems to be more geared to the contractor and Lowe's more geared to DIY crowd. Which may be why you see more help in the Lowe's stores.

Not sure if you have them in your area but Menard's in Michigan rocks, they blow away the other two.

[Karl Laustrup]

I've resisted commenting in this thread long enough.

I must agree with all that have chimed in about service at just about any of the big box stores. Service has been compromised at these places for the purpose of the bottom line over a period of several years now. All for the sake of the stock holders but I think, mostly for the upper echelon of corporate officers.

In the beginning, as service was compromised and selection was reduced, the powers that be [PTB] saw that there was a marked increase in profits. More money for the stock holders, but even more money for the PTB's. So they kept cutting. It's not the person working in the store's fault and yet we take it out on them to an extent. Who do we complain to? Really, no one, because the PTB's have insulated themselves from the everyday worker, to include the store managers and in many cases the regional managers.

Now, with business down and more importantly profits down, they sit and place blame on everything and everyone but, themselves. And they can't understand what went wrong. I'd like to suggest they go into one of their stores, not as the PTB, but as the average person and see if they like the service, selection and quality of what they have brought on to themselves.

Oh wait, they don't have to worry about shopping at a store such as they run, because they are paid such outrageous salaries and bonuses that they wouldn't be caught dead shopping in a place where the peons shop. Personally, I don't think there is any person that's worth the outrageous saleries and bonuses they are paid.

Who's to blame? Well, we are really. Or, we have been. We have accepted the shoddy service, in some cases inferior product and limited selection offered by the big box stores. We are also to blame if we own stock in these companies and expect record dividends every year or don't demand of the Board of Directors to bring compensation of the officers of a company back to reality. And get rid of the "Golden Parachute". Do any of us get a bonus for doing a bad job? If I did, I'd be sitting pretty now without any financial worries.

I've wanted to write to these PTB's on many occasions however, the odds of something critical of the way they run the business they've been entrusted with, making it to the right person's desk is astronomical. And if it did it would be dismissed as just one disgruntled customer, not to worry we've got millions of customers to feed our greed.

Do I shop at the big boxes. Yes! Because I have little choice. It's either HD or Menards [I'll take Menards any day, and it's privately owned and while not perfect, at least customer service is something they understand] or very small hardware stores.

Well, I've wasted enough of your time reading this, but I do feel better getting it off my chest.

That's my $1.398 worth of opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

Karl

[John W. Willis]

Go to planetfeedback.com and search for HD complaints, it's an eye opener.

[Pete Brown]

Costco is just as bad. I refuse to pay a store $50 just to walk through their doors and even worse, I refuse to be treated like shoplifter when leaving. ( They ask for your receipt and inventory your cart)

The inspection on the way out was one of the main things that made us stop shopping at WalMart several years ago. I agree with you 100%

Pete

[Laurie Brown]

Costco is just as bad. I refuse to pay a store $50 just to walk through their doors and even worse, I refuse to be treated like shoplifter when leaving. ( They ask for your receipt and inventory your cart)

Sam's Club does that here. It's $35 to join I think. I get my membership free through my hubby's workplace, or I probably wouldn't pay for one. I only go there to get the items I need in bulk that are cheaper than Krogers. Things like toilet paper, paper towels, cat litter, etc. They apparently don't trust their employees at the register either. If they ring up every item in my cart, there shouldn't be any reason to inventory me at the door.

[Rod Upfold]

HD Forum...


Direct link to another forum deleted - TOS Violation

[Rod Upfold]

Had a URL about HD...

[Laurie Brown]

We really don't have much choice around here, either. The Ace Hardwares we had went out of business when HD and Lowes moved in, and now we have 3 Lowes and I think 2 HDs in the area. We have one Woodcraft store, a couple of Southern States some drive away, and as far as I know, that's it.

As far as HD and Lowes go, in my experience nobody knows anything in either store when I have questions. Sometimes they try to LOOK like they know something, and guess at the answer. So I basically look online with my questions BEFORE I hit the stores to buy things. There are usually more employees in Lowes than HD, and I know for a fact they are paid slightly more at Lowes. I will usually go to Lowes first to find what I want, and if they don't have it I go to HD just down the street. But HD usually has it at a slightly higher price IF they have it at all, and there's usually nobody around to help you there. The HD parking lot is usually pretty empty, while the Lowes lot is usually pretty full, so it wouldn't surprise me if the HD closes up eventually.